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House OKs $50.5B in Sandy aid
WASHINGTON — More than 10 weeks after Superstorm Sandy brutalized parts of the heavily populated Northeast, the House approved $50.5 billion in emergency relief for the victims Tuesday night as Republican leaders struggled to close out an episode that exposed painful party divisions inside Congress and out.

The vote was 241-180, and officials said the Senate was likely to accept the measure early next week and send it to President Obama for his signature. Democrats supported the aid in large numbers, while majority Republicans opposed it by a lopsided margin.

“We are not crying wolf here,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., one of a group of Northeastern lawmakers from both parties who sought House passage of legislation roughly in line with what the Obama administration and governors of the affected states have sought.

Democrats were more politically pointed as they brushed back Southern conservatives who sought either to reduce the measure or offset part of its cost through spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

Blasts at Syrian university kill 80
BEIRUT — Twin blasts inside a university campus in Syria’s largest city on Tuesday set cars ablaze, blew the walls off dormitory rooms and left more than 80 people dead, activists said. What caused the blasts remained unclear.

Anti-regime activists trying to topple President Bashar Assad’s regime said his forces carried out two airstrikes. Syrian state media, for its part, blamed rebels fighting the Syrian government, saying they fired rockets that struck the campus.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been harshly contested since rebel forces, mostly from rural areas north of the city, pushed in and began clashing with government troops last summer.

Egypt train crash kills poor draftees
BADRASHEEN, Egypt — Packed in a rickety train speeding through the night, the poorly fed, pale-looking Egyptian draftees were coming from Egypt’s most dirt-poor villages to serve in one of the most miserable, lowly jobs of the security forces — as grunts in an anti-riot force usually deployed against protesters.

At a station just outside of Cairo before dawn Tuesday, the train’s last car jumped the track, slammed into a parked train, and then was dragged for several miles. The car was torn to pieces, young recruits were sent flying along the tracks, and others were mangled.

In the end, 19 recruits mostly in their early 20s were killed and more than 100 were injured, some with arms or legs torn off.

The accident was the latest example of Egypt’s decrepit infrastructure turning lethal for the country’s poorest — and a reminder that the revolution two years ago has brought no relief in the lives of a population where poverty is worsening. The crash brought a new wave of anger at Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for failing to carry out reforms or overhaul crumbling public services.

It’s also complicating training for mushers already signed up for the 1,000-mile trek to Nome.

But Iditarod officials say there’s still plenty of snow along much of the route. They say there’s no need to worry about drastic changes to the race, which will start March 2 in Anchorage.

Deaths of hikers underscore safety
ST. LOUIS — Experts say the weather-related deaths of an Air Force veteran and two young sons during a Missouri hike illustrate the need for precautions that could avert similar tragedies.

Authorities say experienced hiker David Decareaux and two of his boys, ages 10 and 8, of Millstadt, Ill., weren’t equipped for the elements when they set out Saturday on the Mark Twain National Forest’s Ozark Trail in light clothing.

The temperatures plunged through the day and overnight, before their bodies were found Sunday morning on the trail.

Officials and experts say hikers should never take weather for granted. The Decareauxes will be buried Friday near St. Louis.